1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a puzzle game apparatus and a computer readable storage medium having a puzzle game program stored thereon. More specifically, the present invention relates to a puzzle game apparatus and a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a puzzle game program which fill in a plurality of cells arranged in a matrix manner in accordance with predetermined numerical clues.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, known is a puzzle game, in which cells to be filled in are identified, from cells arranged in a plurality of rows and columns, by using numbers as clues (numerical clues), each number being displayed for each of the rows and each of the columns, and a picture (letter) eventually appears after the cells are filled in accordingly. The puzzle game is generally called as a picture crossword puzzle. A game program operable to execute such a puzzle game on an electronic game apparatus and a game apparatus executing the game program are also known (e.g., “Picross 2”, [online], by Nintendo, searched on Sep. 13, 2006 through the Internet <URL: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n02/dmg/ap2j/index.html>, hereinafter referred to as non-patent document). In this game program, 15×15 cells are displayed, and numerical clues are displayed on an upper portion and a left portion of the cells. In addition, a technique of enlarging and displaying a numerical clue which corresponds to cells to be filled in by a player is disclosed.
However, the game program disclosed in the above-described non-patent document has the following problem. In the above-described game program, although the numerical clue is enlarged and displayed so as to be viewed easily by the player, each of the numerical clues corresponds to only one or one column. Further, all the cells are of a uniform size. Therefore, a problem is posed in that the game tends to become monotonous, and the player tends to get bored after playing the game for a long time.